CARSON – It almost was like the last day of school for the Galaxy on Sunday afternoon at Home Depot Center.

They could let their minds wander, go through the motions and head off for vacation, knowing they had some serious sleep-in time in front of them.

They also wanted to get their valedictorian one last honor, and Landon Donovan scored to clinch the MLS scoring title.

“If we were able to show that kind of character over 30 games, we’d still be playing in the MLS playoffs,” coach Bruce Arena said after the Galaxy’s 2-2 tie with Dallas on the final day of the regular season.

“Some of my reading on the team is there is a shortage of leadership on and off the field, and today there was leadership there.”

There also were graduations to consider, the most serious being that of Donovan, who is ready to head to another continent. As he left the field, fans chanted “One More Year!”

Don’t count on it.

After one miserable study-abroad session in Germany in 2004-05, Donovan has his eye on another foreign exchange arrangement.

“From my standpoint, I’m ready to take that step and I want to,” he said after the game. “Competitively, I have that itch and want to do it and I will make that very clear to people.

“Mentally, I’m ready and I wasn’t ready before in any capacity. You only get one career, as (U.S. national team coach) Bob Bradley wisely told me, and I want to make sure I give myself a chance.

“I’d love to play in the (English) Premiership. I think it would be incredible. I’d love to play in Spain. That would be incredible.”

The Galaxy (8-13-9) took a 1-0 lead on a beautiful header from Edson Buddle off a classic crossing pass from David Beckham.

But in a five-minute span, Dallas (8-10-12) scored twice, with Drew Moore converting a scramble in front of the net and Victor Sekora easily getting behind the defense to pull in a long pass from Duilio Davino and make it 2-1.

Galaxy midfielder Alvaro Pires then was ejected when he picked up a red card for fouling Sekora.

But four minutes into the second half, Dallas’ Aaron Pitchkolan was ejected after picking up his second yellow card and the Galaxy got even on Eddie Lewis’ pass to Donovan, who scored his 20th goal in the 79th minute. That left him two ahead of Dallas’ Kenny Cooper.

“It’s a massive honor,” Donovan said. “I really wanted to get to 20 goals, and thanks to Eddie Lewis today, I got it. Not many people do it here or anywhere in the world.”